Spotify buys Cord Project and Soundwave to bolster social features

With Rdio’s recent exit from the music streaming business, only a few major industry players remain: Spotify, Google Play Music, Groove, Apple Music and Deezer, which recently raised $109 million in equity funding from a private investor.

With the help of two recent acquisitions, it looks like Spotify is looking to bolster its feature set. The first acquisition is a company called Soundwave, a social music app that allows users to create profiles and track the content they’re listening to on various streaming services. The platform allows people to follow one another, chat, swap music, and see trending topics – all features that sound like they’re a good fit for Spotify’s burgeoning social network.

The second acquisition seems a little more unorthodox. Cord Project, a company created by two former Google employees, has so far been focused on voice messaging. The company’s flagship project is a mobile app that allows users to send short snippets of audio to both individuals and groups. It’s unclear what Spotify intends to use Cord Project’s technology for, though the streaming service could be working on its own proprietary voice recognition system. However, Spotify denied this claim in a recent statement.

“We are excited about the talent the Cord team brings to Spotify especially as it relates to design and audio experiences,” said Spotify in a statement. “This acquisition is not specifically about voice messaging and there are no plans to enter that space.”

The terms of both deals were not disclosed by Spotify. The music streaming platform reportedly has 75 million users.